Good morning! Another beautiful Sunday ahead!

 

Early Dismissal/No School: Friday, October 8, is an 11:30am dismissal, with No School on Monday, October 11th. The STM calendar says no Extended Care, so dismissal will begin at 11:15am.

 

First Trimester Interims: Conduct interims will be going home, stapled to the green sheet.  Re: green sheets - they are homework every Thursday for your sixth grader to bring to you and have signed. Re: detention slips: this gives your student an opportunity to get the work in before Tuesday and have it signed off by the teacher. 

 

Mass on Friday, October 8 at 10am will be planned by Rm. 9. If you are able to attend Mass with us, we would love to have you! 

 

Race for Education: October 20th! We are at $995 from Rm. 9. Thank you for your contributions to date - lots of time left to get your donation into PledgeStar or by check to the STM office (write Race for Education on the front of the envelope.)  Thank you!

 

 

7th Gr Reading: We are finishing the novel The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall. The paperback books will be collected on October 15th. If the book is lost, please provide me with a replacement copy or FACTS can be billed for a replacement copy. Some students have expressed an interest in the artwork that is a focal point of the novel. The piece is at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/throne-third-heaven-nations-millennium-general-assembly-9897 in lieu of a field trip you could watch this video for an idea of what the (fictionalized) story is that your student is reading!

 

6th Reading: We stay pretty busy in 6th grade reading with Vocab on Wed/Fri, and there will be a List 3 test on Thursday. Students can always practice their vocab at https://www.vocabularyinaction.com/students/sr-level-g

We will finish our Nine,Ten by Nora Baskin this week. There will be a short Google quiz on the vocabulary and story events. The students will write a short response to a few writing prompts to demonstrate understanding of the character viewpoints before and after 9/11.

 

6th LA: Personal Narrative writing pieces are nearing completion and they are wonderful!  The assessment exercise about the kitchen disaster was lots of fun for the students to share. There will be a "Writing Skills" assessment on Wednesday.  Generally, the Writing Skills assessments and Writing Units will help balance the Grammar grades. 

 

Religion 6: Last week on Monday the students had a quick Slides about Sexual Harrassment (mandatory.) Then we moved to Chapter 3, Everything God Created is Good. The Chapter 3 study guide was completed in class on Friday, and we will check it for accuracy on Monday. The Chapter 3 test will be on Tuesday. The Loyola Press website for Christ Our Life has study guides and resources:  https://www.loyolapress.com/faith-formation/christ-our-life/christ-our-life-2016/parents-and-students/grades-1-8/grades/grade-6/

If I have full attendance on Wednesday - Thursday, I'm planning to complete the (mandatory) Formation in Christian Chastity lesson. This lesson focuses on healthy friendships and is not a "sex talk". You can preview the lesson here: https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/child-protection/formation-in-christian-chastity/grade-6/

 

 

This will be a fast, fun week if the October TikTok challenge is completely ignored by the middle school students! I would not have thought that any STM students would participate in the September challenge, but surprise, surprise, a few did decide to trash the bathrooms", and what a disappointing development that has been. I thought the whole idea of these challenges was fake, but apparently not. 

 

Please talk with your student about September's "trash a school bathroom" challenge, which has presented a tremendous amount of unnecessary and extra work for our ONE sweet, kind, hardworking cleaner, and for our facilities maintenance crew.

 

Reporting the destruction/defacement is not "snitching". It is showing leadership in our small community, support for our cleaner, and courage to face being called a "snitch". Mrs. Davis will be addressing the defacement of both of the boys' bathrooms this week. 

 

If students decide to take up the October challenge and "smack a staff member" or "steal their keys" or "throw everything on their desk into the trash"  it will be a long, long month for all of us - our students and families, their teachers, and the staff members. 

 

Thank you!!!! 

 

Jodie Morgan